Reid Gillings
Mt. Everest
February 23, 2010

I was staring at the biggest mountain in the world from the bottom about twenty feet away from it. I wouldn’t be so scared if I wasn’t in climbing gear getting ready to climb Mt. Everest by myself! When I first saw my first mountain when I was six I was overwhelmed. That was a miniature mountain compared to this mountain. I was about to climb the tallest mountain in the world when I was twelve years old! Could I make history or will I die trying?

I perceived all of the things that could happen to me before I made my climb. I dug my foot in to the hard rock and began to climb. I looked up and almost gave up but I kept my hopes up. Things really started to kick in when I got to about a thousand feet. I thought about all the deceased that tried to climb this mountain. I shook that out of my head and I gave a momentous push over a large boulder stuck in the rock. I could be at the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 or The Lightning Thief but I chose to climb this mountain in honor of my great grandfather who failed to climb it.

He was my best friend in the family and we shared all of our mountain climbing stories with each other. As I thought about this I didn’t realize how close I was to the top of the mountain. I was about seventy feet away when I oppressed against a large boulder and the boulder slipped out of position and fell.
It missed me by an inch!

I was only two feet away from the top now and I heaved my foot up to the edge and pulled myself up. I acclaimed with glee after I stood up on the tallest mountain ever. The view was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my entire life. My grandfather would be very proud of me for finishing what he didn’t complete. It was prospective that I would get a lot of hugs and kisses from the family when I got back home. There was only one thing wrong. I didn’t have a way to get off the mountain!

7 YEARS LATER
“How do you feel about your son being the mother of the first kid to climb Mt. Everest but dying of cold atop the mountain without a way down?” the camera people yelled right in my face. I spurned them and walked back inside my house slamming the door behind me. I had just forgotten about the subject and seven years later the paparazzi come storming to my house to make feel even worse than it already was. I did know the answer to their question though. I was very proud of him for trying just like I’m proud of my grandfather for trying and giving my son the gift of mountain climbing.